


Sunshine Risin'

by ArtemisRayne



Series: May Look at a King - A Newsies Felisian AU [19]
Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Felisian, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cat/Human Hybrids, Established Relationship, Felisian!Jack, Fluff, Introspection, M/M, No Dialogue, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, soft bois
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-29
Updated: 2019-06-29
Packaged: 2020-05-30 19:11:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19409599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArtemisRayne/pseuds/ArtemisRayne
Summary: It never ceases to amaze Davey, but Jack is capable of falling asleep literally anywhere.





	Sunshine Risin'

**Author's Note:**

> Finally, after a couple installments of angst, here is some plain, unabashed, diabetes-inducing sweetness and fluff. Also, this is another piece I've had in the pipeline forever, waiting for the right place to use it. Like, so old I was still stuck on that idea of using cat-related quotes for each story.
> 
> Alternate title: "Davey so loves his pretty soft boi."
> 
> This takes place between chapters one and two of "Needs and Necessity."

_"Cats are connoisseurs of comfort."_

~ James Herriot 

* * *

It never ceases to amaze Davey, but Jack is capable of falling asleep literally anywhere. 

Davey thinks part of it must come from Jack's bad habit of forgetting to sleep. He supposes when you sleep sporadically as it is, you learn to sleep when and where you can. That much, at least, Davey can understand; as a college student, there's definitely been plenty of late nights followed by nodding off in a lecture. 

The difference is that unless he is absolutely exhausted (or drunk), Davey has a very hard time falling asleep if he's not lying down, to the point that even just reclining on the sofa usually makes him jerk awake from the feeling of wrongness. Jack doesn't seem to have any such problem. 

Be it on furniture or the floor, sitting up or laying down or, one memorable time, standing, Jack is strangely capable of making himself comfortable anywhere. Davey's seen him sleep draped over the arm of the sofa, back bent in an arc, or perched on the edge of a stool with his head on the table at the coffee shop. More than once, he's been found splayed on the floor of the apartment. 

Race once joked that Jack has narcolepsy, and there was a time early in their relationship that Davey almost wondered if there was some truth to that. Really, though, Jack just has an innate ability to find a convenient spot for a nap in every place imaginable.

In the wake of midterms, an expansive lethargy settles over the campus. A large chunk of the student body is gone, enjoying their spring break somewhere far away from responsibility. Davey originally planned to go home for the week, but the doctor he's been seeing for his broken arm had an unexpected scheduling issue, and Davey's only choices were in the middle of spring break week or wait another two weeks for his next opening. Since this is the appointment where he's supposed to have the cast removed to see if his arm is healed enough to go without it, he really doesn't want to wait that long. 

As much as it sucks not to get the chance to see his family, there's also something nice about being on campus in this peaceful lull. The weather seems to agree, weeks of cold and rain finally giving way to a crisp, sunny spring. So Davey is taking advantage of the warmth, propped beneath a tree in the courtyard outside his dorm building with a good book. And curled up on the grass beside him, Jack is fast asleep, indulging in a post-work midday nap. 

Smirking, Davey glances down at his boyfriend in amusement. All nearly-six-feet of felisian is tucked into a ball, legs folded up to his chest and tail coiled around to complete the circle, the tip twitching lazily only inches from his face. Davey can't imagine how he's comfortable like that; Davey's never been able to sleep curled up, the awkward press of his own body making him feel too compacted. Then again, it's hardly the strangest way Davey's seen Jack sleep. 

Davey reaches out and combs his hand through Jack's hair. A soft, momentary purr stutters and then Jack burrows his face into the arm pillowed beneath his head, settling back into sleep. Davey smiles and scratches idly at the base of Jack's ear, his boyfriend's sleeping face more interesting than the book Spot lent him. 

There's something intensely beautiful about Jack's face when he's asleep. Not that Jack isn't beautiful all the time. He's unfairly attractive, so much so that it had literally stolen Davey's breath the first time he laid eyes on him. 

Jack knows it, of course; or at least he knows that _other_ people find him attractive. Something nudges painfully in Davey's chest as he thinks it. He can understand it, knowing Jack's upbringing, but it never fails to make him sad that Jack doesn't see his felisian features as anything other than something that makes him _different_. Jack smiles and laughs and wields his looks like a weapon, but he doesn't really believe it. There's always been this hollowness to it, something Davey picked up on when they first met but couldn't place. 

It's gotten better over the last few months. Slowly but surely, Jack is starting to let go of those ingrained habits that drive him to repress his felisianism wherever possible. When they met, there was this constant deliberateness in Jack's features, any movement of his ears and tail carefully controlled to reduce attention on them. Davey found it a bit off-putting at times, the way it seemed like Jack was always so guarded but pretending not to be. 

Now, though, Jack's expressions come so much more naturally. There's not that strange concentration to it like he's more concerned about the slant of his ears than the shape of his smile. When he laughs and his tail flicks into a wide arc, or when he's excited and his ears swivel all the way forward, or when he's stressed and his tail stills except for the sharp twitches of the very end, it doesn't feel so - practiced. It still happens on occasion - especially, Davey's noticed, around unfamiliar people - and Davey thinks there might be a little piece of it that never goes away, but it's better.

But when Jack's asleep, none of that exists anymore.

Jack's face, partially ducked into his arm, is serene, worry lines and crow's feet alike smoothed from his skin. The fan of his dark lashes is resting softly on the pale freckles that span all the way across his cheekbones. His ears are relaxed into their neutral position, slightly rotated outward, and his lips are parted just enough to reveal the tiniest glimpse of an elongated canine. Every muscle is loose and pliant, all the way down to his tail where it hangs over his ankles into the grass.

Davey can never quite get over how exquisitely handsome this man beside him is. Not all felisians suit their features so well. Like with all of nature, the same general guidelines for what's considered aesthetically pleasing in a person apply to felisians as well, beauty in symmetry and proportions. Sometimes with felisians, the contrast of their hair and fur is just a little off, or the slightly larger than average irises make their eyes seem too big, or their longer canines fit strangely in their mouths.

But everything about Jack, from the tufted white guard hairs at the tips of his ears to the little heart-shaped birthmark on his ankle, just _works_. (Although Davey can concede that he's perhaps a little biased.)

Jack's ear flutters and Davey hastily lifts his hand so the touch against the delicate hairs on his ears doesn't wake the felisian. Once Jack settles again, Davey returns his fingers to rubbing idle circles into the base of Jack's ear. Humming, Jack shifts his position a bit to arc into the touch, and his hand flexes rhythmically on the grass. 

It always amazes Davey to see Jack like this, so open and relaxed. Jack is far more willing to allow those instincts that he can't entirely stop himself from viewing as non-human slip out when they are alone. (And it still breaks Davey's heart every time he hears Jack refer to non-felisians as 'human,' as if Jack _isn't_ human himself.) In the beginning, the times when Jack would growl or knead or purr around Davey felt like being given a gift, knowing he was seeing something no one else got to see.

Except they're not alone now. Sure, it's not like the campus is its usual pulsing rush of bodies, but there is still a steady stream of people wandering the grounds. There are plenty of people that can see them, that are casting curious glances at the pair lounging on the grass, and Jack knew that when he joined Davey. Yet that didn't stop him from tucking himself into a distinctly cat-like ball and purring quietly as he slipped off to sleep at Davey's hip. 

Somehow, that makes Davey feel even more special than when he was the only one who got to see Jack this way. It's a sign of Jack's progressing journey to accept himself for who and what he is. More than one person - including Jack - has implied that most of that change has come from Davey's presence in his life, and the thought that Davey has helped Jack so much is a better gift than anything else he could ever be given. 

It only feels right when Davey thinks about all of the ways Jack makes his life better too. 

The felisian suddenly hums and stretches, rolling partway onto his back. When Davey realizes why, he has to bite his lip to stop from laughing aloud. The sun has traveled while they've been sitting here, and the shade has rotated away from where Jack's lying. Now bathed in the warm spring sunlight, Jack shifts to spread himself out beneath the rays, sleepily absorbing the heat. 

Davey smiles, drinking in the sight. Jack's hips are still slightly canted, but his shoulders are nearly flat on the grass now. The angle pulls the hem of his shirt up, baring a strip of his stomach to the light. Even in his sleep, Jack tips his face up toward the sun, and it casts sweeping shadows beneath his jaw and turns his brown hair a bit gold. Behind him, his tail thumps in a lazy non-rhythm on the ground. 

They shouldn't stay here much longer. At the least, Davey can't let Jack stay like that too long or he'll get sunburned. Jack just looks so blissfully content, fast asleep in his patch of warm sun. 

Grinning to himself, Davey finds his page in his book again. A few more minutes won't hurt.

**Author's Note:**

> See, I wasn't kidding. I kept trying to give this more depth and purpose, but it just ended up being a blurb of Davey muses over how pretty his boyfriend is. These boys... *shakes head*


End file.
